Subbotniki.org

(Established April 4, 2005)
Last updated on February 27, 2006
Web Site Guide
  1. Subbotniki.org Web Site (Cубботники) Introduction
  2. Subbotniki in Los Angeles: Background and History
  3. Subbotniki Around the World
  4. Contact Information

1. Subbotniki.org (Cубботники) Web Site Introduction
Russian: Subbotniki - субботники  English: Sabbatarians

Subbotniki is a Russian Sabbath-observing sect — “Saturday people” —  "Sabbath keepers" — “the people of the Law of Moses” — non-Jewish Christians who obey the Old Testament, hold services on Saturday, and follow many Jewish laws and customs. Not to be confused with other Sabbath-keepers or Sabbatarians, like “Seventh-Day Baptist,” Church of God, Seventh-day Adventists, etc. Other spellings: "Subbotnikim" in Israel, "Subotnik", "Subbotnick", "Sobotniki". The Russian Orthodox Church punished their heresy — Christian- Judiazers. Some sub-groups have rabbis. Some emigrated to Israel, Europe and the US. Only a few congregations with dwindling numbers are known to exist today in Israel, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Transylvania and Hungary.

  
Subbotnik service in Vyoski, Voronezh province, Russia, 2005. See photos in Armenia and America.

For the purposes of discussion on this web site, members of the Subbotniki sect can be sub-categorized into two groups:
  1.  “Molokan-Subbotniki” relates to ethnic Russians who converted from the Molokan faith to Subbotniki, but 
    • Did not adopt the Talmud as a basis of their religious practices 
    • Continued to acknowledge their relationship to the Molokan community despite of their religious differences which sometimes divided family members
    • Were not able to read, speak or understand the Hebrew language
    • Some followed the Molokans when they emigrated to Los Angeles around 1910. More recently, some Molokan-Subbotniki living in the independent republics on the Former Soviet Union have resettled near Molokan communities in Stavrapol, Russia
  2. “Geres / Gers” (Russian: Gery [геры]) relates to ethnic Russians who adopted all aspects of Judaism and have closer affiliation with the Jews of Israel. 
The primary focus of my research is the Molokan-Subbotniki

Purpose of this website: Prior to the launch of this web site (April 4, 4/4/05), there was no central source of information on the Subbotniki, nor was information on this Russian religious sect easy to find. As a descendant of Subbotniki and Molokan parents in America, I have always wanted to better understand my religious and ethic heritage. I can remember that my Pivovaroff babunia [grandmother] and my Babashoff babunia practiced their religions in different ways and on different days, but beyond that, there were many similarities between them. Since the Subbotniki have essentially ceased to exist as an organized religion, except in a few pockets of the former Soviet Union, I feel it is important to document what we have found so far.

I am pleased to present the information on this website which I maintain with Andrei Conovaloff, who hosts a similar site about Molokans — Molokane.org. I am grateful for his support, without which this site could not be launched. My goal is to promote understanding and to encourage others to share what they may know about the Subbotniki.

Send corrections, suggestions, new information to: Bill Aldacushion

2. Subbotniki in Los Angeles: Background and History

The Subbotniki  Research report with photographs, maps bibliography and citations of additional resources and references, by William Abram Aldacushion (Алдакушин), July 2000 — webmaster of this site. Bill is a descendant of the dissolved Molokan-Subbotniki congregation in Los Angeles.


More About the Subbotniki In Los Angeles

80 Subbotniki known to be buried at Home of Peace Memorial Park (PDF 27K)
Short history of this Jewish cemetery in East Los Angeles used by the Subbotniki congregation since 1911 with 80 deceased listed with vital statistics, locations, comments.

In 1971, Los Angeles Subbotnik congregation dissolves, donates $800 to UMCA
Article by Alex Tolmas, Vice President UMCA, 1971.

The Subbotniki: Secret Jews of Boyle Heights
Article by William M. Kramer — Western States Jewish History, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2000


Historical Relationship with Molokans

Judiazers
Encyclopedia Judica
"Simeon Uklein ... introduced many Jewish customs among the members of his sect. His disciple Sundukov called for greater association of the sect with the Jews; this resulted in a split within its ranks and the creation of the 'Molokan Sabbath Observers'. ... The Judiazers succeeded particularly in the province of Saratov, where the preacher Milyukhin won over whole villages to his faith."

P. N. Miliukov on Molokans and Judiazers
Excerpt translated from: Miliukov, P.N., Ocherki po istorii russkoi kul'tury (Essays of the history of Russian culture). Volume 2 of 3. Moscow. Reprinted 1994. Pages 126-7. [Original published in 1942.]
"Especially numerous were judaizers in the Saratov region were this unorganized sect had its own leader / preceptor [наставник — nastavnik], Semyon Dalmatov."

Early Molokan "Jumper" Prophets Criticize Teachings of Subbotniki, Steadfast Molokans and Russian Orthodox Church.
Comments on 2 passages from the Jumpers' Book of the Sun: Spirit and Life. in which the Jumper leaders scorn the Subbotniki and all other 666 false faiths.

70 Molokan families converted to Judaism in Saratov, Russia, before 1925.
 1946 interview with Mrs. Clara Adamovna, whose Molokan family all became Jews.


Research by American & European Scholars

Hebrews of the Russian Steppes    Added Feb. 7, 2006
Article by Eliezer Schindler in the United Israel World Bulletin, Union, NY Mar-Apr, 1947 (contributed by Jerry Silverman, - Bayonne, NJ in Sept. 2002.
The writer of this article, Eliezer Schindler, while a pris­oner of war during the first World War, came in close con­tact with many converts to Judaism of the Kirgiz Steppes in whose midst he spent the greater part of his forty months in Russia.

Judaism and "Jewishness" as Other in 19th Century Russia:
The Conscription/Conversion Policy of Nicholas I
Thesis by Joey Bacal, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Lexis & Clark College — July 27, 1997

Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus
by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Professor of History, Ohio State University
 2005 book from his 1998 PhD thesis examining how the “harmful sects” (Molokans, Doukhobors, Sabbatarians) were resettled to the Caucasus and their interaction with each other, often changing membership for privileges.


Research by the Russian Scholar Aleksandr L'vov

E-mail from Dr. L'vov, June 1, 2005
Alexander L'vov specializes in research about the religion of Jews and Subbotniki at the Center for Jewish Studies, European University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexander’s web site: Researching the Russian Jew
“Dear Bill,“Thank you very much for your letter and your excellent web site. Recently I've found and downloaded a newspaper article about the village of Iudino (Siberia) and a short but interesting record about Privolnoe in the published letters (in the letter of 13.10.1985) of Galina Starovoytova, a famous Russian ethnologist and public figure (see attachments) [listed below]. They are from the database www.integrum.ru. And have you seen my paper Emigration of Judiazers to Palestine?“ All the best, Alexander”
  1. Iudino article: "Chosen place on a creek bank"   Updated Feb. 23, 2006
  2. Galina Starovoytova letters (PDF, Russian)

Jews and Subbotniks: History of impact and stereotypes of perception
 Paper by A. L'vov, presented July 24, 2002, at the 7th EAJS 2002 Congress:
"Jewish Studies and the European Academic World"
Abstract — My paper deals with a religious sect appeared in Russia at the end of the 18th — beginning of the 19th c.. Soon this sect was widespread among Russian peasantry. The sectarians were called ‘zhidovstvuyushchiye’ (Judaizers) or Subbotniks in different official documents. They identify themselves with Jews, seek to be in touch with Jews and to read the Jewish religious literature in Russian and in Hebrew. A few of the sectarians have been adopted by Jews, and a few of the sectarian congregations have preserved a specific ethno-religious identity: neither Russian nor Jewish. They consider themselves as pupils of Jews and many Jews came to Subbotniks’ communities as teachers. This sort of inter-ethnic relations looks like a Jewish messianic ideal, but in reality there are many difference between them. In particular the teachers of Subbotniks were those Jews who happened to come to Central Russia, not only Rabbis and devotees. The ideal model and real contact experience interaction have been reflected in some folklore texts collected during several expeditions in recent years. My investigation considers these texts in historical and ethnological perspectives.

Иудействовать и молоканить недозволено
или об особенностях народной герменевтики
Страница Александра Львова
“Judaizers and Molokans are Unlawful”
or, About the Features of the National Germenevtiki
Article by Alexander L’vov — (To be translated from Russian.)

Геры и субботники — «талмудисты» и «караимы»  
Страница Александра Львова
Gery and Subbotniks — “Talmudists and Karaimy” (DOC)
Article by Alexandr L’vov — (Translated from Russian.)

Русские иудействующие: проблемы, источники и методы исследования
  Страница Александра Львова
Russian Judiazers: Problems, sources and methods of research
Article by Alexander L’vov — (To be translated from Russian.)


Miscellaneous References to Subbotniki and Judiazers

A Crash Course on the Subbotniki
Article by Anne Herschman in Kulanu, Volume 9, Number 3, Autumn 2002, page 13. (PDF)
“...there are now about 10,000 to 15,000 Subbotniki left in the Former Soviet Union. Most of them are elderly and they are unfortunately a dying breed. There is a community that lives in Yitav, the Jordan valley (Israel), which has about 30 families. ... ”

Where Is the True Church? Information on Churches and Sectarianism
Part II: Sects and Heresies in Russia, by Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
"Another secret sect was 'Jewish-like.' ... The preaching of Skaria attracted many people ... this sect was outlawed and its followers were scattered into various prisons. From surviving members of this sect grew a new sect under the name of "Saturday People." [who]... appeared in the 18th century; they celebrated Saturday, instead of Sunday and acknowledged only the Old Testament. Some even practiced circumcision according to Jewish tradition. Emperor Nicholas I banished them all to the Caucasus [sic] Mountain region."

Subbotniki
 By Herman Rosenthal, S. Hurwitz in The Jewish Encyclopedia.com

Judaizing Heresy (zhidovstvu-yushchaya yeres)
By Kaufmann Kohler, and Herman Rosenthal in The Jewish Encyclopedia.com

Judaizers
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

Judaizers
New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia

История соблюдающих субботу на Руси  Added Oct 17, 205
Е. В. Зайцев, декан богословского факультета Заокской духовной академии
"Образ и подобие", №2 (2), 1993г., с. 44-50.
History of Saturday Observers in Russia (Translation in-progress)
E. V. Zaitsev, Dean, Department of  Theology, Zaokskoi Spiritual Academy
Means and Similarity,  No.2 (2), 1993, pages 44-50.

Material from Ambassador College & Worldwide Church of God

In Search of Thyatira
By Robert J. Thiel
“...contact with Sabbatarians from Eastern European countries including Romania and the Subbotniki from Ukraine, Russia, Tajikistan and Siberia...The Sabbatarians still exist, both in Transylvania and Hungary...in Transylvania three different groups of Sabbath-keepers....”

The Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping
Churches of God (No. 170)
by the Christian Churches of God —  Common attributes of Sabbath-keeping churches for 200 years

Church History, Notes-Lecture 22: “Lollards / Anabaptists / Sabbatarians”

History of the Church of God (Out of the Shadows)  Added Jan. 8, 2006
Part 8 of an series that appeared in the Worldwide Church of God's monthly magazine The Plain Truth that was transcribed to the British-Israel Church of God web site which includes a section on The Sabbath in Central Europe with references to Judaizers and Subbotniki in a historical context.
"... We have shown in this series of the history of the Church of God, that there have always been  groups of scattered, often persecuted, Christians apart from the mainstream Church. ...

We have seen that Eastern Europe was the dwelling place of some of the secluded believers of the past. .... Our primary source of knowledge of these Christian Sabbath keepers is The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890 edition. An article by I. Abrahams and C.G. Montefiore discusses the part the seventh-day Sabbath plays in different religions..... Sabbath-keeping Christians spread as far north as Russia.

Here's what The Jewish Quarterly Review says about them: "As regards the Russian Sabbath-observers, the so-called Sobotniki or Subbotniki, we have to depend for an account of their origin and present condition, on a few extremely scanty notices."They belong to the Russian sect, Molokani or milk-drinkers, one of the various sects that arose, during the sixteenth century, in those provinces of Southern Russia which were at that time under the supremacy of the Polish crown, all of which sects displayed a Judaizing tendency.

"The Molokani, so runs the account given by a Russian chronicler, observed the Sabbath and had their children circumcised.... In the second half of the eighteenth century, their number in the first-named government had grown to 5,000 souls. By keeping their doctrines secret, they escaped persecution, till they were betrayed in 1769, and made to suffer oppression from the State" (pages 466-467) ...."


3. Subbotniki Around the World


Armenia
  
  • Sevan [north shore of Lake Sevan, population 23 in 2001]

The Last of the Saturday People
Article by Frank Brown, The Jerusalem Report. Nov. 19, 2001. pg. 72
SEVAN, Armenia — "After 200 years, ...remaining in Sevan are 23 elderly Subbotniks"
Jews in Armenia: The Hidden Diaspora
Thesis/film by Vartan Akchyan 2002, DVD/video, 25 minutes, $46 — Subtitles: English, Russian, Hebrew, Armenian, English — History and existence of the Jewish community in Armenia. — Made in the summer of 2001 in Armenia, Israel, and the US. — Includes 3.5 minutes of interviews and services with the Subbotnik congregation and leaders in Sevan, Armenia (formerly: Yelenovka village). 
See a storyboard of the Subbotnik video segment — 40 frames with subtitles and 2 songs.

Jews in Armenia: The Hidden Diaspora ( PDF, HTML cache) Thesis/article by Vartan Akchyan
Summary of page 83: “The People of the Sabbath” relocated in the 1730s from central Russia (Tambov, Saratov, and Voronezh) to build their own town of Yelenovka, now Sevan, on Lake Sevan. This was 100 years before Molokans and Doukhobors came. Their beliefs are based only on the Torah though they are ethnically and linguistically Russian. Ancestors had their own synagogue, rabbi, and prayer books which were translated from Hebrew to Russian. Their song melodies are similar to Molokan-Jumpers.”


Azerbaijan

  • Privolnoe & Navtlug [south], Kuba [north]

Expedition to Azerbaijan in June 1997
Article by V.A.Dymshits — Petersburg Judica.  Analysis of 2 Jewish-like villages in Azerbaijan — 1997


Hungary and Transylvania

Researcher visits descendants of Transylvanian Sabbatarians
The Journal: News of the Churches of God, Issue 48

Spiritual Jews of Szekler Jerusalem:
A Four-Centuries History of Transylvanian Szekler (Székely) Sabbatarianism.
Research by Professor Dr. Judit Gellérd, Boston University, School of Theology — Fall 2000


Iran (Persia)

  • Rahmatabad (to 1950)

Light Through the Shadows: The True Life Story of Michael Simonivitch Beitzakhar
Excerpts about Subbotniki and Molokans in Persia/Iran
Translated and Edited by Daniel V. Kubrock [from Beitzakhar's Russian manuscript] — 1953.


Israel

  • Yitav [6 miles north of Jericho]
  • Beit Shemesh [20 miles west of Jerusalem]
  • Hula Valley (to 1980s) [south end, 10 miles north of Sea of Galilee, 2 miles west of Golan Heights]
  • Tel Adashim
  • Yesod Hama'alah (early 1900s) [Galilee]

Russian Jews who don't drop out (PDF)    Added Feb. 7,  2006
Article by Carl Alpert in The New Jersey Jewish Standard— July 31, 1987
(contributed by Jerry Silverman, - Bayonne, NJ in Sept. 2002)
"In recent years only two out of every ten Jews leaving the Soviet Union have been coming to Israel. The remainder drop out at Vienna and proceed for the most part to the US. There is one exception to this. The descendants of Russian converts to Juda­ism, some of them third- or fourth- generation Jews, who succeed in getting out of Russia come straight to Israel - all of them. There has not been a single case drop-out, among the dozens who have reached this country, and all of them appear to have been absorbed and integrated successfully."

A time to remember: The Subotniki of Russia (PDF)    Added Feb. 7,  2006
Article by David C Gross in The Jewish Week — NY, Aug. 23-29, 1991
(contributed by Jerry Silverman, - Bayonne, NJ in Sept. 2002)
"Among the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who have immigrated to Israel in recent years are a purportedly tiny number of descendants of the Subotniki, a sect of Russians dating back to the 18th century....Some Subotniki a century ago joined the early Zionist pioneers in Galilee colonies; over time they were completely absorbed by the Jewish population. Probably the same thing will happen to the new Subotniki arrivals in modem Israel."

Rejected
Article by Yossi Klein Halevi in The Jerusalem Report — Aug. 21, 1997:
Subbotniks were hated and beaten in Russia, but after moving to Israel their Jewishness was questioned.

Abandoned in the Jordan Valley
Article by Ari Ben Goldberg in The Jerusalem Report.— Nov. 19, 2001:
Subbotniki were moved from Russia to Israel and placed in the West Bank where the Palestinians hate them and they get no help from the Israeli government.

The Dubrovin Farm: The Sobotniks
Gems in Israel: Spotlighting Israel's Lesser Known Tourist Attractions and Travel Sites, the Gems. Map. April/May 2002
SOHULA VALLEY — “The Dubrovin family came .. from the Astrakhan region of Russia in the early 1900's. They were Sobotniks (Hebrew: botnikim) ... After their conversion, they took Hebrew names; ...Yo av and his wife, Rachel. They dug a well, began farming the land and were quite successful, ... most of their children succumbed to malaria from the nearby Hula swamps. ... Yo av, was 104 at the time of his death — and the family never left the site. The last family member to live on the farm, Yitzhak, gave the farm to the Jewish National Fund, which restored the site and opened it as a tourist attraction [in 1986]. There is a reconstruction of the Dubrovin's living rooms, kitchen, ... An audiovisual program in English. ... a working potter, a blacksmith display and a non-kosher restaurant, ...”
Joyce Bivin, a Molokan-Armenian who lives in Israel reports:
“Around the 1920's, a group of Subbotnikim came to Israel [from Russia] and settled in the Hula Valley.” This is the farm of one family.
She also says:
“Years ago when I shopped at a certain supermarket, nearly all the cashiers were Russian and lived in Beit Shemesh (...30 minutes west of Jerusalem). I asked one of the girls if they knew about the Molokans (some have vague ideas) and after I described who they were, she said there were a group of Subbotnikim living in Beit Shemesh and described them having blond hair (why that was unusual, I don't know as most of the Russian immigrants are blond anyway). I was very excited to hear this but never followed up not knowing which section of Beit Shemesh they lived. ... I'll start asking again.”

Dubrovin Farm and Yesud ha Ma'aia
The Jewish Agency for Israel, Department for Jewish Zionist Education: History and photos

Save the Subbotniks!
Article by Michael Fruend, The Jerusalem Post — Feb. 17, 2005, pg. 15

Saving Russia’s Subbotnik Jews
Jewish World — May 22, 2005:
"Over a dozen Subbotnik Jews from [Vysoki, Voronezh] moved to Israel last month and settled in the Beit Shemesh area outside of Jerusalem."

Panel: Bring in 10,000 Subbotniks
Article by Nina Gilbert in The Jerusalem Post — June 21, 2005
Members of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee called on Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines on Monday to use his authority to allow into the country some 10,000 "Subbotniks"


Russia

  • Astrakhan', Golossow (1918)
  • Astrakhan', Liman [north shore of Caspian Sea]
  • Birobidzhan, Chabarovsk [Jewish Autonomous Region, Far East]
  • Bondarevo / Iudino [Khakasiia, 1800s]
  • Staniza Novoprivolnaia [population: 300, Stavropol' territory]
  • Vysoki [population: 800, Voronezh province]
  • Borisogleb Raion [Voronezh, 1964]
  • Rasskazovo and Michurinsk [Tambov, 1959]
  • Il'inka [population 100, Voronezh province, 1991]
  • Staraia Zima [Siberia before WWII]
  • Essentuki and Prohlodnensk [Caucasus before WWII]

Субботники (Иудействующие)  Added Sept. 27, 2005
Авраам Шмулевич, Марк Кипнис — КЕЭ, том 8, колонка 635-639
(To be translated from Russian.)

Hebrews of the Russian Steppes     Added Feb. 21,  2006
Eliezer Schindler,United Israel Bulletin, March-April 1947, pages 13-14
"The majority ... reside in the Kirgis-Steppes along the banks of the Volga and the Caspian Sea. ... steppes of the Saratow-Astrakhan provinces. ... the Caucasus and in Siberia. Nearly all ... are agriculturists, smiths, carpenters and plumbers. Only a few are merchants and traders."

History of Religious Secataranism in Russia (1860s-1917),
A. I. Klibanov. 1966. (translated 1979)
"The population of was primarily sectarian — Molokan, Subbotnik, and Kristovover — and this village had a reputation of being 'the sectarian capitol'." (pages 397-8) "My encounter with Subbotniki in Rasskazovo Raion of Tambov Oblast during 1959 and in Borisogleb Raion of Voronezh Oblast during 1964 confirmed my opinion that we are dealing with followers of Judaism who give primary importance to its rituals and customary side." (page 46)

Современное Состояние Сектантства в Советской России,
English: A modern Condition of Sectarianism in the Soviet Russia,
Н.А. Струве. ("Вестник РСХД", 1960 г.)  (To be translated from Russian.) by N.A.Struve. (Bulletin RSHD, 1960); translated in Religion in the USSR, Munich, July 1960, Series 1, No. 59
Before WWII Subbotnik worship was marked in Siberia (Staraia Zima), in the Caucasus (Essentuki, Prohlodnensk) and in the Western Kazakhstan. Subbotniki exist in a small numbers in Tambovshchin (30 in the city of Rasskazov, 15 in Michurinsk). The number of Subbotniki was not great before the Revolution (37,173 in 1900).

Jewish community of Astrakhan
FJC—The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
ASTRAKHAN, RUSSIA —“... a large group of Gers ... Molokan Subbotniks... who .. came to adopt Jewish practices ...converted to Judaism. ... The Gers owned a mill and lived prosperously ... By 1880, there were ... about 2000 Gers. In 1905, Gers established a prayer house and a mikvah. ... In the late 1940s, many Gers suffered from the state repression and their prayer house was closed in the 1950s. The Gers reside in the village of Liman until this very day and sometimes visit the Ashkenazi Synagogue. Despite their relative poverty, they always bring gifts for the synagogue. ..”

The Last Jews of Ilyinka
The Jerusalem Report — Feb. 14, 1991
VORONEZH, RUSSIA — "...about 100 mostly elderly Jewish residents; within a decade, only the graves will remain of this unusual Jewish community." Maps added

Die Subbotniks: Russen mit mosaischer Religion (original in German)    Added Feb. 8,  2006
The Subbotniks: Russians with mosaic Religion (English translation PDF) 
Article by Lubmilla Borissova in Moscow German Newspaper — Mar. 23, 2001
"To the services in the synagogue of Birobidzhan also come Russians – brearded men with typical Jewish Kipa on the head and old women. About 200 Russians who profess to a mosaic religion live in the vicinity of Chabarowsk the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region in the Far East. They are members of  the Subbotniks community, the so-called Sabbatarians. "

Veterans of Russia's Jewish land take lots of pride in the good ol' days
Article by Sue Fishkoff, National Conference on Soviet Jewry, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sept. 23, 2004
BIROBIDZHAN, RUSSIA FAR EAST — “Dov Kofman, 55, joined them in 1983, moving with them in 1986 to their current synagogue — a small wooden hut on the outskirts of town. For 10 years they shared their building with half a dozen females, who follow a kind of Seventh-day Adventist religion that considers Saturday the day of rest.”

Where Russians cursed in Yiddish
Article by Sue Fishkoff, Jerusalem Post, Oct. 5, 2004
BIROBIDZHAN, RUSSIA FAR EAST — “Until it affiliated with the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia (Keroor) in 1996, Kofman's ad-hoc congregation prayed together with a group of "Subbotnikim," elderly Russian women who practiced a kind of Seventh-Day Adventist Christianity.”

Strategies of Constructing a Group Identity:
the Sectarian Community of the Subbotniki in the Staniza Novoprivolnaia
Article by Sergey Shtyrkov, Folklore, Vol 28, Dec. 2004, page 91
STAVROPOL, RUSSIA — L'vov and Panchenko assist Shtyrkov with 14 hours of interviews with Subbotnik elders taped in September 2000. 300 Subbotniki resettled from Azerbaijan to this village where Molokans also live. They call themselves: "Subbotniki", "Russians of the Mosaic Law" or "people of the Mosaic Law", not Jews.

Save the Subbotniks!   Updated Feb. 20, 2006 -- 2 new photos,  population data
Article by Michael Fruend, The Jerusalem Post, Feb. 17, 2005, pg. 15
VORONEZH, RUSSIA — "...there are an estimated 10,000 Subbotniks spread throughout several dozen communities..." Maps added

What is happening in Misrad ha Pnim (again)? 
Blog by Paul about previous article, Feb. 17, 2005
"..the Ministry's attitude on this issue puzzling. It raises, of course, the philosophical-ideological question of the attitude of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel to not-quite-Jews who really, really, want to be part of our nation, our people and our religion ..."

Israel takes up the repatriation of "Subbotniks"
News agency Cursor: News of day — Mar. 22, 2005
Израиль приступает к репатриации «субботников» 
Информационное агентство Cursor: Новости дня — Обновлено 22.03
20 Subbotnik families from Vysokii will be "repatriated" by Israel according to Michael Freund. (See "Save the Subbotniks!" above.)

Saving the Subbotniks
Jewish Telegraph Agency — Mar. 22, 2005
"... 20 families of Subbotniks to move to Israel ... hundreds more will join them later..."
Photo: Subbotnik man in Vysoki

Saving Russia’s Subbotnik Jews
Jewish World — May 22, 2005 -  copied at: Shavei Israel — Israel National News — May 20, 2005
"Over a dozen Subbotnik Jews from [Vysoki, Voronezh?] moved to Israel last month and settled in the Beit Shemesh area outside of Jerusalem."

Subbotniki in Siberia Added Feb. 23, 2006
Subbotniki founded Iudino village (now Bondarev), Khakassi territiory. Maps, 3 translated articles, 1 book excerpt about 1800s setlers from Voronezh, including the most famous Subbotnik: Timofei M. Bondarev who wrote a book, corresponed with Tolstoy, and was honored with the village name and in 2005 with a monument.


Ukraine

  • Vinogradiv, Khusk (2,500) Trans-carpathia province

The Good Works of the Subbotniki in Trans-carpathia  (RTF)
Subbotniki carrying out ‘good works’ in Transcarpathia (PDF)
Subbotniki carrying out ‘good works’ in Transcarpathia (HTML)
Article in 3 formats by Bonne A. Rook, writer from Netherlands.
Subbotniki in western Ukraine predated European Protestants and "...Sabbatarians in Germany ..are almost all related to the Subbotniki and Szombatosok in Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics,..." The Subbotnik pastor Vasili Polytschko from Vynogradow tells how they stopped vandalism and hate by converting their former police building into a soup-kitchen and religious school for neglected kids. 3 photos. Donations accepted for their ministry: "Light of Love". Map of Transcarpathia (find Vynohradiv, Khusk). Map covering eastern parts of Transcarpathia (Khust, Vynohradiv, ...)


Uzbekistan

  • Kibrai district, Tashkent region

UZBEKISTAN: Believers are not even allowed to visit each other  Updated Nov 1
Article by Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service — Oct. 27, 2005
"The Subbotniki live in the Kibrai district of Tashkent region [capital of Uzbekistan], 15 kilometres (10 miles) north-east of the capital, and every week police come to community members and warn them that it is illegal to hold meetings in private apartments. On 9 August [2005] the police even forbade the Subbotniki from holding a religious ritual for one of the community's members who had just died."
Note from John Kinahan, Assistant Editor, Oslo, Norway:
"We are a Christian web and e-mail initiative to report on threats and actions against the religious freedom of all people, whatever their religious affiliation, in an objective, truthful and timely manner. The name Forum 18 comes from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we are based in Oslo, Norway. We have been mainly concentrating up to now on the states of the former Soviet Union... I would be happy to arrange for you to receive our weekly e-mail news summary every Friday."


4. Contact

Bill Aldacushion
PO Box 10171
McLean, VA 22066 USA

E-mail: billald@attglobal.net

Other websites: